I AM a local resident living close to Riccal Drive, Helmsley. I was initially supportive of the National Park building their new HQ here. However, having viewed the drawings I feel extremely let down.

I was told the new HQ would be a state of the art building, with a high sustainability credentials - but looking at the drawings they seem to be proposing a dark brown brick which will dominate the local street scene and provides huge amounts of parking (73 spaces plus a separate area at the rear for commercial vehicles) suggesting a high number of daily vehicle movements. The National Park were supposed to be bringing forward an active travel plan but based on these parking numbers I would question the impact of any active travel plan they hope to bring forward.

I also noted the designs do not include a kitchen/canteen area - does this mean employees will need to travel into Helmsley to get lunch? Given it takes 30 minutes to walk into Helmsley and back, I think it’s fair to say a good proportion of employees will drive into town for lunch - greatly increasing vehicle movements in this residential area.

I heard through the grapevine a public consultation is planned on 8th May but so far it’s not been advertised, so residents are not being given much notice of the consultation. Given National Park booked the venue some time ago why have residents not been given proper notice of the meeting - Is this a deliberate act to limit interaction?

Based on what I have seen I feel I must withdraw my support for the project.

Resident of Riccal Drive area